ADELPHI, Md. (Sept. 5, 2012) — Scientists at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory are exploring ways to quickly alert Soldiers to deadly gaseous nerve agents in the air using a new approach termed multi-wavelength photoacoustics. Kristan Gurton, an experimental physicist in the Battlefield Environment Division, or BED, Computational and Information Sciences Directorate at U.S. Army […]
Applications
In Perspective – Money walks
Cable operators should become transaction processors. I suspect I might have got myself on a terrorist watch list. A couple years back, I wanted to surprise my wife on our anniversary with a vacation. This took some doing, as she handles the household finances. In fact, she actively monitors household finances – sometimes on an […]
Memory Lane – Wi-Fi’s long road
Revolutionary ideas can require lots of nurturing before they leave their mark. In the lore of the wireless broadband technology known as Wi-Fi, the recognized “father” of the category is Victor Hayes, a former NCR Corp. engineer from the Netherlands who first chaired the famous 802.11 Working Group of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics […]
Time Warner Cable tabs Ruckus for Wi-Fi connectivity at DNC
Time Warner Cable is hooking up attendees at this week’s Democratic National Convention with Wi-Fi gear from Ruckus Wireless. Time Warner Cable has installed Ruckus’ ZoneFlex family of Smart Wireless LAN (WLAN) systems to deliver high-speed Wi-Fi throughout the 19,000-seat Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, N.C. Time Warner Cable has previously used Ruckus Wi-Fi […]
Fitch: Sprint, T-Mobile merger ‘makes sense’
A top ratings agency says there’s still a chance for Sprint to merge with T-Mobile USA despite years of failing to come to fruition. T-Mobile had long been an acquisition target of Sprint before AT&T threw down a $39 billion offer to buy the German-owned operator, a bid that failed late last year amid government […]
GreenPeak, Bosch partner on home security
Bosch’s Security Systems division is looking to cater directly to the home security system needs of service providers by partnering with GreenPeak Technologies. Service providers have demonstrated that home security is a viable adjunct to their set of broadband-based services. GreenPeak has introduced a set of integrated circuits to enable wireless RF connectivity based on […]
RGB beefs up TV Everywhere stable with live SDI video encoding
RGB Networks is showing its new TransAct Encoder/Transcoder at the IBC2012 show in Amsterdam this week. The TransAct Encoder/Transcoder, which is integrated with RGB’s existing TransAct Transcoder product line, offers the ability to ingest uncompressed SDI-sourced live content, as well as IP and file input, for live or on-demand IP video delivery to smartphones, tablets, […]
Molded chip scale package ideal for ultra-portable applications
Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Limited introduced the AOC2403 – the industry’s first Molded Chip Scale Package (MCSP) in a tiny 0.97mm x 0.97mm x 0.3mm power package. Compared to existing Chip Scale Package (CSP) solutions, MCSP reduces package height by 50 percent and improves the mechanical robustness of the package by protecting the encapsulated die […]
A millimeter-scale, wirelessly powered cardiac device
A team of engineers at Stanford has demonstrated the feasibility of a super-small, implantable cardiac device that gets its power not from batteries, but from radio waves transmitted from outside the body. The implanted device is contained in a cube just eight-tenths of a millimeter in radius. It could fit on the head of pin. […]
‘Magic carpet’ could help prevent falls
Plastic optical fibres, laid on the underlay of a carpet, can bend when anyone treads on it and map, in real-time, their walking patterns. Tiny electronics at the edges act as sensors and relay signals to a computer. These signals can then be analysed to show the image of the footprint and identify gradual changes […]